148 FRANCE - MISCELLANEOUS 



tration service for the last ten years, the amount of these dues that might 

 be considered as rent. 



On the other hand, it was specified that to the rent there should be added 

 the charges legally due to the landlord, when, by virtue of the agreements, 

 such charges were imposed on the lessee, as well as, if need be, the value of 

 the services rendered and dues paid by the tenant farmer, but that, on the 

 other hand, deduction should be made from the rent, as shown in the deed, 

 of the interest on stock and the value of buildings (houses, workshops and 

 farm buildings) and that of the moveables mentioned in the deeds. 



Finally, the agents had first of all to interpret the clauses of the deeds 

 so as to know what influence they had in fixing the rent and then to estim- 

 ate the increases or deductions to be made in order to arrive at as accur- 

 ate an idea as possible of the rental value. 



Besides, as the contracts of lease often refer to holdings extending over 

 many communes and as the valuation is made per commune, the superintend- 

 ents were, in such cases, obHged to calculate the portion of the rent for 

 the real estate situated in the commune where the operations were being 

 carried out, a matter not always easy, even in case of contracts of lease not 

 containing special clauses. 



The work of ascertaining the rental value thus presented serious dif- 

 ficiilties and demanded minute attention as well as a profound study of the 

 contracts. If we add to this that the rents are often shown in the contracts 

 at less than their real value and, also, as many departmental directors have 

 found, they vary with the kind of farm (large, medium sized or small 

 farms), we see how difficvdt in many cases it may be to ascertain 

 from a contract of lease the real rental value of the land in question. 



It is none the less true that, taken altogether, the contracts of lease 

 allow of our learning with sufiicient accuracy the average rental value of the 

 holdings and that thus they are a very eftectual means of checking the 

 figures of the scale. 



It is to be observed, however, that this system of check was wanting 

 in the case of those communes for which the deeds were not forthcoming 

 at all or only in very small number. On the other hand, even as regards 

 those communes where the investigations for ascertaining the net revenue 

 could be carried out in the case of an appreciable number of contracts, there 

 might be certain errors due either to want of experience of agents new to the 

 work or to the district or to the lack of competence of certain local commiss- 

 ions or to an imperfect appreciation on their part of the object and import 

 of the work of valuation. Finally, if these investigations guaranteed, at 

 first, the uniformit}' of the valuation in each commune, they did not necess- 

 arily ensure that the scales would be in due proportion to each other in the 

 different communes and departments. 



Thus, the Ministerial Instructions of December 31st., 1908 provided for 

 a second verification of the scales and entrusted it to the inspectors of direct 

 taxation. These officers were charged in each department to examine 

 with the greatest care the scales of all the communes and to assure them- 

 selves that the figures were accurate and reliable. They had, further, to 



